Start Close In

Start with your own question

Photo: © David Whyte

David Whyte

‘Start Close In’ is A New Year’s poem if ever one was written, but it was written at, and for, all those thresholds of our life where we need to find a tiny, often un-illuminated footing in the dark, hidden deep inside our sense of self. A hidden place to step onto and then, when found, a place to step from. I’m very touched by all the comments to the post and all the lives the poem has touched in turn. My close in step in writing the piece has led to me holding so many other hands as I go, each of us, individually and communally, trying to find our way into the next dispensation of our lives. DW

Start Close In

Start close in,
don't take the second step
or the third,
start with the first
thing
close in,
the step
you don't want to take.

Start with
the ground
you know,
the pale ground
beneath your feet,
your own
way to begin
the conversation.

Start with your own
question,
give up on other
people's questions,
don't let them
smother something
simple.

To hear
another's voice,
follow
your own voice,
wait until
that voice
becomes an
intimate private ear
that can
really listen
to another.

Start right now
take a small step
you can call your own
don't follow
someone else's
heroics, be humble
and focused,
start close in,
don't mistake
that other
for your own.

Start close in,
don't take
the second step
or the third,
start with the first
thing
close in,
the step
you don't want to take.


-from David Whyte: Essentials

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